Pen duick
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Portrait: Éric Tabarly, king of hearts. He died 25 years ago
by Volker J. Bürck
On the night of 12 to 13 June 1998, Éric Tabarly went overboard in a tragic accident on perhaps the most beautiful of his ships, the gaff cutter "Pen Duick", designed by William Fife III Jr. in 1898. During an everyday manoeuvre. So unbelievably banal! The sea took one of the most indisputably significant sailors in history not in a race at Cape Horn or a storm in the Southern Ocean, but on an ordinary ferry trip with friends. Éric Tabarly drowned in the Celtic Sea near the South Wales town of Milford Haven.
His accident shook the nation. State television even interrupted live broadcasts of the ongoing football World Cup and ran special programmes on the status of the search. Politicians such as the then President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin honoured Tabarly's extraordinary achievements in moving speeches. The country fell into collective mourning.
Even 25 years later, the edgy Breton is not forgotten. And they have erected a worthy monument to him.
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Hydroptère
French experimental sailing hydrofoil trimaran
Experimental sailing craft Hydroptère | |
| Designer(s) | VPLP design |
|---|---|
| Launched | 1994 |
| Owner(s) | Chris Welsh & Gabriel Terrasse |
| Length | 60ft |
| Beam | 74ft |
Hydroptère is a French experimental sailing hydrofoiltrimaran imagined by the yachtman Éric Tabarly. The Hydroptère project was managed by Alain Thébault, the design done by naval architects VPLP design[1] and the manufacturing by a group of French high-tech companies. Its multihullhydrofoil design allows the sail-powered vessel to reach high speeds on water. The design is based on experience from a range of hydrofoil sailcraft that Thébault built in cooperation with Éric Tabarly since the 1980s. On 5 October 2008 she reached a record speed of 52.86 knots (97.90 km/h; 60.83 mph), however this was over a shorter distance than the 500m necessary to qualify for an official world record.[2] On 21 December 2008, the Hydroptère briefly reached 56.3 knots (104.3 km/h; 64.8 mph)[3] near Fos-sur-Mer, but
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Éric Tabarly
French Navy officer and yachtsman
"Tabarly" redirects here. For the soundtrack album by Yann Tiersen, see Tabarly (soundtrack).
Éric Tabarly | |
|---|---|
Éric Tabarly in 1997 | |
| Birth name | Éric Marcel Guy Tabarly |
| Born | 24 July 1931 Nantes, France |
| Died | 13 June 1998(1998-06-13) (aged 66) Pen Duick, Irish Sea, off Wales |
| Allegiance | France |
| Years of service | 1953–1985 |
| Rank | Commander |
| Known for | Sailing career, innovations in naval architecture |
| Battles / wars | First Indochina War |
| Spouse(s) | Jacqueline Tabarly |
| Children | Marie Tabarly |
Éric Marcel Guy Tabarly (24 July 1931 – 13 June 1998) was a French naval officer and yachtsman. He developed a passion for offshore racing very early on and won several ocean races such as the Ostar in 1964 and 1976, ending English domination in this specialty. Several of his wins broke long standing records. He owed his successes to his exceptional mastery of sailing and of each one of his boats, to both physical and mental stamina and, in some cases, to technological improvements built into
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